This invention relates to a food mixing appliance and in particular to a mechanism for locking a head of the appliance relative to the pedestal of the appliance at selected discrete angular positions.
Domestic food mixers can be categorized into two general types. The first type includes hand mixers which are generally light weight, portable, and are often used for mixing small amounts of material. The other type of mixer is the stand mixer, which may be used for mixing large quantities of food, heavy doughs, and other heavy foodstuffs.
Stand mixers typically include a pedestal or base to which a head is pivotably mounted. The head is pivotable relative to the pedestal to enable the user to readily change mixing implements or remove or insert the mixing bowl.
During the mixing action of heavy doughs and foodstuffs, very high forces are produced, which in turn tend to cause the head to pivot relative to the pedestal, even though the prior art stand mixers have included devices of various types which have attempted to lock the head in a fixed position relative to the pedestal. Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to firmly lock the head of a stand mixer relative to a pedestal at discrete angular positions.